A textile update

The past 2 weeks has been so eventful I don't know where to begin to tell it all. As I sit here deciding what to document I feel a little guilty that there hasn't been more textile "stuff" lately for regular followers of this blog. So to remedy this I've taken a photo today of the progess of a WISP which started back in June when my SIL was first diagnosed with APL a rare form of Leukemia. Gail is doing really well at the moment, as you'll see in a future post, VBG. You may recall that I decided to co-ordinate a Healing Hearts Quilt for her to encourage and comfort her during treatment and recovery.



I decided on pink and blue hearts appliqued onto old fashioned floral blocks which she likes. So I cut and ironed hearts onto freezer paper and started collecting signatures. 40 hearts were secretly posted to friends and relations to write encouraging messages with a gel pen on each heart. With her colleagues help I even managed to send some to her kindergarten class, where kids drew on the blocks and the teachers wrote the kids names on for Gail to remember those she had to leave mid way through the year. Luckily the school was able to appoint the regular school substitute teacher to take Gail's class, the kids all knew her and settled remarkably well. That didn't stop her from worrying about them while she was sitting in the hospital hooked up to the chemotherapy treatment though, VBG.
As the hearts started returning I cut them out, removed the freezer paper then fused with Vleisofix to the 6 and 1/2 inch floral squares and hand appliqued around each one with 2 strands of cotton floss. I took Michelle Marvig's advice and chose a cream sashing with a small pattern to make the squares "pop up". I'm hoping to get the blocks all machined together and turned into a small lap rug in time to take it to school during the first term when Gail intends to return to teaching.